Over 200,000 Bay Area residents were thrust into darkness as a powerful storm ravaged the region, leaving a trail of power outages and closed schools in its wake. The wrath of Mother Nature bore down early Monday with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. reporting 219,828 customers sans electricity as of 5 a.m., as CBS San Francisco detailed the extent of the outages across various locales, including the hard-hit North Bay and South Bay.
Struggling under the storm's relentless grip, PowerOutage.us painted a broader picture of the chaos, noting that across California, 533,752 customers found themselves grappling with a lack of power. Blown down by powerful winds, trees and power lines compounded the catastrophe, prompting PG&E to issue a stern warning on social media. "Assume all wires are energized and extremely dangerous. Don't touch or try to move it—keep children and animals away. Report downed lines to 911," stated the utility company, as relayed by SFGate.
The educational institutions were not spared by the storm's merciless passage, with nearly two dozen schools within Sonoma County locked down citing conditions too perilous to permit the sacred act of learning. Evidenced by the closure of schools ranging from Bennett Valley Union to Wright School District, authorities pointed to power outages and storm-inflicted hazards as reasons for shuttering, according to a statement available at SCOE.org. Cal State East Bay's campus in Hayward, while physically inaccessible, remains open virtually, indicating that the pursuit of education persists despite adversity.
The National Weather Service, having monitored the tempest's progression, forecasted that the San Francisco Bay Area contends with an up to 80 percent chance of rain, with the storm's remnants expected to gradually taper off from north to south into Tuesday. While a High Wind Warning expired Monday morning, a High Surf Advisory clung to the coast until 4 a.m., as CBS San Francisco provided updates on weather conditions impacting the ravaged shores from Sonoma County down to Monterey County.
